Similarities Between Lady Macbeth And An Inspector Calls

Both Lady Macbeth and Sheila feel guilt and responsibility, however they deal with it in contrasting ways. Macbeth, written in 1606 by William Shakespeare is set in medieval Scotland. The play is based on a moderately true story about the rise and downfall of Macbeth, who ascended the throne by killing the former King. On the other hand, An Inspector Calls, written in 1945 by J.B. Priestley, is set in 1912. This play is about a mysterious Inspector, who interrogates an archetypal middle-class family, to show how the actions they took led to the loss of a young woman’s life. Both characters are implicated in a death, possibly a murder, however whilst Lady Macbeth strives to ‘consider it not so deeply’, Sheila ‘felt rotten about it at the time’

and grows to feel ‘a lot worse’.

When Lady Macbeth is first introduced in the play, she is portrayed as a powerful, dominant and controlling woman.

Her power and strength becomes evident when she says ‘and shalt be what thou art promised’. Lady Macbeth is saying that she will ensure that the witch’s prophecy will come true even if she has to step in and help the weak Macbeth’ who she views as weak. From this we can see that she has power over Macbeth and is strong willed enough to believe that her help will guarantee that the prophecy will come true. In contrast when Sheila is first introduced to An Inspector Calls she comes across as playful, lively and good-humoured, and she is described as a ‘pretty girl in her early twenties, very pleased with life and rather excited’. This instantly allows the readers to grasp Sheila’s character. Sheila is a convincing demonstration of a girl of her class, as she comes across as quite naïve and uses her power to get what she wants. The characters are seen as very different in the play; Lady Macbeth is portrayed as strong and powerful whereas Sheila is more young and innocent; although as the plays progress they reveal their true

character.

Lady Macbeth is accountable for the killing of Duncan as she exploits the love and trust Macbeth has in her, to persuade him into thinking that murdering Macbeth is the right thing to do. I do not think that Macbeth would have killed the king if it weren’t for Lady Macbeth forcing him into it. Lady Macbeth manipulates Macbeth, which resulted in him feeling unmanly and undermined. The play shows this when Lady Macbeth says ‘too full o’th’ milk of human kindness’, he is too full of goodness and when Lady Macbeth says this she is trying to manipulate him to feel less guilt-ridden. She is trying the make Macbeth feel no guilt, so she doesn’t have to feel responsible for him feeling blameworthy.

Macbeth is set in an era where women and men were not regarded as equal and women were ‘there to be seen and not heard’.

Lady Macbeth, however, defies this gender stereotype as Shakespeare shows her to be controlling and dominant over men. ‘Come to my woman’s breasts/ And take my milk from gall’. Shakespeare has done this to show the audience that the stereotype of traditional women is not always as it seems and that woman can be just as cold-blooded as men. I believe that Lady Macbeth wanted Macbeth to kill the King because she was motivated by power. If she were to be the Queen she would have been the most powerful woman in the country. It is her only chance to achieve this goal. This shows how self-centred she is, as she doesn’t seem to care that the King has to die for her to have have power and wealth. Shakespeare demonstrates that Lady Macbeths desire for power overcomes any feeling of guilt she may feel, as she believes she will be so content in being powerful that they have no time to

feel.

In comparison, Sheila comes across as self-centred because of the attention she craves due to her important engagement. Also, she has had a very fortunate upbringing, so she is used to having everything her own way and how she likes it. ‘She was very pretty and looked as if she could take care of herself. I couldn’t be sorry for her’. She only cared that Eva was pretty and was not concerned for her because of it. Sheila has a lot of pride; coming from a rich family she uses this to get her own way. Maybe, Sheila has been affected by her upbringing, as her mother is very egotistical and self-obsessed. For example, when Daisy went to Sybil’s charity to get help, Sybil knew she was lying and didn’t care to help Daisy. Sybil say she only supports ‘deserving class’.

Lady Macbeth uses gender a lot during the play, as she thinks that women are more fragile and weak than men, so they wouldn’t be able to kill the King. Lady Macbeth says ‘unsex me’ so that she can be more like a man and then she can feel less guilt. She also uses gender to take less responsibility when she pretends to faint. She is taking advantage of the stereotypes associated with her gender in this period. In summary she appears to be distraught and miserable when in actual fact she is brutal and nasty. She is trying not to take any responsibility by distracting other characters, so that they think she is distraught by the murder.

Both Shakespeare and Priestley’s plays revolve around social class and the authors are trying to put across their opinions on social responsibility. For example Priestley’s characters are overemphasised caricatures of people, in different positions in society. As the Birling family represent the middle class. Priestley suggests that society’s views of higher people as more honourable, however this is contradicted when Sheila gets Eva dismissed from her job simply because she was prettier and smiled at her. ‘If she’d been some miserable plain creature, I don’t suppose I’d have done it’. She is judging someone on their appearance, which make he come across as shallow and quite an egotistical character. She abuses her wealthy status to dismiss Eva from her job. She blames the way that Eva acted in the shop to hide the fact that she was responsible for getting a young girl fired from her job.

Sheila’s character is described as naïve in the beginning of the play, however this is overcome when she becomes suspicious of Gerald and his long absences last summer - ‘last summer, when you never came near me’, (the stage directions say (half serious, half playful)) this shows that there is more to her than what she comes across as. I think that this could be portrayed as bitterness. Nevertheless she seems more sharp, observant and perceptive. When Mr Birling is explaining his side of the story to the Inspector, Sheila exclaims ‘but these girls aren’t cheap labour- they’re people.’ This indicates that Sheila is maturing and not being as self-centered. This shows that the guilt has affected her, she has taken responsibility for her actions, now she has become more mature because of it. By the end of the play Sheila definitively has a more socialist view unlike her capitalist parents.

Lady Macbeth shows that she hides behind her words and is not as powerful as Shakespeare portrays her as in the beginning of the play. We see this when she declares ‘had he not resembled my father as he slept, I’d had done’t’. Lady Macbeth is showing a weakness through the fact that she hasn’t got the strength to kill King Duncan due to her perception of his striking resemblance to her father. However, she is also boastful of her own strength. "Too full o' the milk of human kindness," Lady Macbeth is implying that Macbeth is too much like a woman, seen in that era as the weaker sex so this is an insult to Macbeth and implies that he is too weak to kill the king.

Priestley uses Sheila to represent the younger generation, as he saw them as ‘more impressionable’ and more adaptable, so quite like the audience, however Sheila’s parents represent the older generation as they generally are quite set in their ways and do not want to take any responsibility for Eva’s death. I don’t think that Sheila’s family are as understanding of what they may have done to Eva because of the era in which they lived in. They are more set in their own ways and some would say that they are very self absorbed. Shakespeare uses Sheila and her family to show the contrast in the social change between two generations. Sheila starts to have her own views and contradicts her parent’s opinions rather than siding with them. Sheila takes the responsibility and feels guilty unlike her parents.

When Sheila finds out about Daisy/Eva’s suicide she immediately feels guilt and remorse, blaming herself as ‘really responsible’. This shows that she has matured from her original self in the beginning of the play. She takes the responsibility and changes. Sheila realizes the importance of the Inspector’s message and blames herself for Daisy/Eva’s death. Sheila has changed for good; the play shows this when she gives her engagement ring to Gerald and says ‘You and I aren’t the same people who sat down to dinner here’. Sheila’s parents, after they find out the Inspector could be wrong, want to forget about everything and go back to their normal lives. However Sheila and Eric are the only ones who still see the wrong they’ve done and won’t forget it.

I would suggest that Lady Macbeth, after originally trying to cover her guilt up and hiding her emotions she really does feel guilty, as there is a change in her character. Lady Macbeth loses control of her mental state of mind and mad, this is because of the guilt eating her up inside. In the beginning of scene 5, Lady Macbeth is always washing her hands as if she is trying to wash away everything that has happened. However it is not working, as she has to wash her hands because she can’t forget about the murder. Originally I think Lady Macbeth thinks that she will not feel the guilt as she says ‘a little water clears us of this deed’. She thinks that she will just be able to wash away her guilt but little does she know that she will go mad because of it. The play shows the day Macbeth has gone mad by the way she speaks as confidently and fluently in the beginning however by the end he word become more rambled and repeated ‘come, come, come, come, give me your hand’. Another reason, which suggests the Lady Macbeth is feels remorseful is that, she starts sleepwalking. Sleepwalking in Shakespeare’s time was unusual and abnormal, I think that this is because he mind is so disturbed that it has disturbed the way she sleeps.

In conclusion, in the beginning of the play, before the killing Lady Macbeth came across as in control and strong, during the murder she tried to cover up her guilt but in the end the guilt defeated her and she committed suicide. I think that her suicide shows that she did feel responsible for the murder of Duncan. Sheila started of as a naïve, young girl who didn’t see the world out off her elite bubble of her middle class family. However she grows to show compassion for Eva and take all the guilt and responsibility readily. Both character deal with the guilt and responsibility in different ways. Sheila uses it to grow as a character conversely lady Macbeth unfortunately has too much pride in herself to show any signs of her guilt.